Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/160

LEFT STBOZZI 126 STRY, or STRYI STBOZZI, the name of a wealthy and illustrious Florentine family. Palla, Filippo, and Piero were the three most renowned members of this princely house, between 1432 and 1537, and who were either exiled or lost their lives in the strug-gle for liberty against the power of the Medici family. STB.UENSEE, JOHANN FRIED- RICH, COUNT, a Danish statesman; born in Halle-on-the-Saale, Prussian Sax- ony, Aug. 5, 1737; studied medicine, and in 1768 was appointed physician to the King of Denmark. He soon became a favoi'ite with both the king and queen, and effected the dismissal of all those who were obstacles to his own ambitious plans. In 1770 he advised the king (who was little better than an imbecile) to abolish the council of state, a measure which roused the indignation of the Danish nobility, since it threw all au- thority into the hands of the queen and the favorite. Struensee by various means gradually usurped the administration of all affairs in the name of the king, and caused himself to be created count. His arrogance now caused a conspiracy against him, and on Jan. 16, 1772, the queen, Struensee, and their partisans were seized. The favorite was brought before a special commission, was found guilty of criminal relations with the queen (on insufficient evidence), con- victed, and executed on April 28, 1772. STRUMA, a river which has its rise in the mountains of Western Bulgaria, flows S. through Macedonia, through Lake Tachyno, and empties into the iSgean Sea 50 miles E. of Salonika. It is identical with the Strymon of antiquity. During the two Balkan wars, in 1912-1913, and again during the World War, after the Bulgarians had joined the Central Empires, it was the scene of heavy fighting. Until Septem- jer, 1918, it was largely within the Bul- garian lines, but after the final attack by the Allies at that time the Bulgarians were driven back and the Allied troops advanced up both banks of the river. STRUMA PASS, a cleft in the moun- tain chain which formerly constituted the frontier between Turkish Mace- donia and Bulgaria, through which runs the River Struma, and which constituted one of the gateways into Bulgaria by which the Allied troops advanced into Bulgaria during their successful offen- sive, in September, 1918. STRUMNITZA, a town and fortress in Macedonia, held by the Bulgarians against the British contingent of the Allied armies in the Balkans, during the World War. It was at this point that the Allies invaded Bulgaria proper, on September 25, 1918, as part of the gen- eral advance, begun a week before, which terminated in the complete col- lapse of the Bulgarian resistance, and proved the beginning of the end of the war as a whole. STRUT, a bar in a frame having equal and opposite forces applied to its ends, acting inward and producing upon it a state of compression. Specifically: (1) A diagonal timber which acts as a post or brace to support a principal rafter or purlin. Its lower end is stepped into a tie beam, or on a shoulder of a king or queen post. (2) A brace between joists. STRUNSKY, SIMEON, an American journalist and writer; born at Vitebsk, Russia, in 1879. While still a boy he removed to the United States and gradu- ated from Columbia University in 1900. In 1906 he became an editorial writer for the New York "Evening Post," and was also literary editor of that paper. His essays were published in several vol- umes, including "The Patient Observer" (1911); "Post - Impressions" (1914). Other books are: "Belshazzar Court" (1914) ; a novel, "Professor Latimer's Progress" (1918) ; and "Little Journeys to Paris" (1918). STRUVE, FRIEDRICH GEORG WIL- HELM, a German astronomer; born in Altona, Holstein, April 15, 1793. His whole life was devoted to astronomy in the service of the Russian Government; from 1813 to 1820 observer and Professor Extraordinary of Astronomy in the Uni- versity of Dorpat; from 1820 to 1838 Professor of Astronomy and director of the same observatory; and from 1839 to 1864 director of the new Imperial Observatory at Pulkova, near Petro- grad. His great work in astronomy was the observation and publication of the great Dorpat catalogue of double-stars, generally known as the "Mensurse Micro- metricce," and denoted by the letter 2 and the "Positiones Mediae," or re- sults of the meridian observations of the same stars, this catalogue being generally denoted by the letters 2 [PM]. These catalogues have served as the model for all similar work since. The rest of his life was given to the founda- tion and organization of the great ob- servatory at Pulkova. He died Nov. 23, 1864. STRY, or STRYI, a town of Austria, in Galicia; on a river of the same name;